101 On Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management is a process to manage and anticipate supply chain activities to maximize customer experience and achieving a sustainable competitive edge a the same time.

The effort is continuous, coordinated, and proactive by the team involved to run the chain – from development, production, to logistic – as the most effective and reliable as much as possible.

A supply chain starts with the raw materials that are then developed into a finished product, and ends with the delivery of the product and/or service to the customer. The supply chain management oversees each point of the process – and the difference between making a break or losing it is each point can add or decrease total costs, impact, and revenue to the company’s bottom line.

Case in point, how Coca-Cola reduces it’s inventory up to a billion dollars after revamping it’s inventory system and ditching various surplus, unnecessary business with a new CEO taking over in the eighties.

By managing the supply chain right from the center (through physical and information flows), the company will be able to cut down excess costs and at the same time deliver the products to the customer quicker.

Tips For a Better Supply Management

Dynamic is the key.

Adopting a proactive, agile, and demand-driving planning and business model based on insights, trend, and shaping with integradted execution.

Useful insights and prediction will ensure a proactive planning and safety against risks such as suppliers going out of business, buyers backing out at the last minute, politic-related effects, or even natural disaster: companies can then adjust their strategy and prices accordingly to keep the revenues flowing.

Today, business model requires a dynamic adjustments done continuously to rapidly respond to volatile market changes; this in turn can minimize shock on the chain as much as possible as the changes are anticipated beforehand.

Optimizing product management and design to accelerate innovation is also equally important. Being ahead of the game is crucial through decisions made for the product development at the right place and time if you want to get the piece of the market into your revenue’s annual statement.

This can be further achieve with a clear collaboration from the beginning to end of supply chain with each department, and managing the points within the chain is a lot more easier thanks to the cloud technology.

Sustainability is also an integral part of the supply chain, with companies striving for both social and environmental sustainability have bigger competitive advantage and certainly appear more attractive to the customers. Integrate it into each point of the supply chain and making it as a key requirement of the company.

A reliable and predictive supply is also essential in managing the supply chain as without one you’ll be facing with higher, unnecessary uncertainty, costing more than what you can hold onto. Who needs that kind of pressure in your business anyway?

Working on improvement, acting proactively, and insightful strategy is the key for successful and synchronized end-to-end chain operations.

In conclusion

There’s no hard rule written in a book to know for sure what kind of strategy are tried and tested for your supply management system – the market moves dynamically and that alone affects the direction of your business as well.

A proactive, insightful principles implemented within the battle plan of your business strategy will ensure that your company stays competitive for many years to run.

Source: 1,2,3,https://scm.ncsu.edu/scm-articles/article/what-is-supply-chain-management-scm